he of whom I may complaine as Nazianzen did of some Pugnant pro Christo contra Christum saith he and Pugnant pro lege contra legem say I they fight for the Law against the Law and Legis nomine armantur contra legem dimicant They arme themselves with the Law to fight against the Law as Leo speakes Ad Palaestinos Thus the Covetous and the unconscionable dealer makes the Law his Patron the oppressing Land-Lord makes her his Sanctuary the deceitful bargainer makes her his stalking horse the bloody Revenger makes her his sword and buckler to offend his Enemies and defend himselfe and thus shee that is ordained for a publick good proves the hurt of many she that is the Mistris of Justice proves the Minister of injustice she that is a Preserver of Peace proves a Trumpet and an occasion of War not that of her selfe she is any such cause no no but as the middle region which of all the three is the coldest by antiperistasis produceth the hottest effect Thunder and Lightening as water which naturally doth quench being poured upon lime causeth it to burn as the morall Law the Law of all righteousnesse is the cause of sin Rom. 7. 8 10 11. as the Gospel of Peace is an occasion of War Matth. 10. 34 35. So our Law which of it selfe is holy and Just and good by accident turnes to be a cause and occasion of Evill All the blame hereof rests upon the heads of two men the wrangling Client the unconscionable advocate the 1. is that Ahab that troubles all Israel who is as Jeremia speakes of himself upon another occasion a contentious man and a man that strives w th the whole world that rough Ismael that hath his hand against every man and every mans hand against him that Salamander that loves to be bryling and broyling in the fire of contention Et lachrymas mittit cum nil lachrymabile cernit he is never well but when he is doing or plodding some ill he goes to Law not out of a desire of publick peace for what hath he to do with peace he may say as Nero did when he set Rome on fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So that it go well with him he cares not if the whole world be set on fire not out of an honest defence of his own Right for his own conscience tels him he hath none but either of a desire of revenge or because he knowes himselfe to be more skilfull in packing and shuffling of Cards then the party with whom he is to play or presuming upon his own purse or upon the simplicity of his Adversary or out of an hope by spinning In infinitum the thred of contention and bringing his opposite into an inextricable maze of troubles to inforce him either wholy to depart from his own right or to say of it as the Whore did of the child Let it neither be mine nor thine but let it be divided or at least which is the ordinary work that such Archers aime at to draw him to a Composition This is sometimes sacriledge when it is for depriving the Church of her right sometimes these when it is for stripping men of their lawfull Rights sometimes murther when it is out of a desire of Revenge sometimes other sinnes when other ends are proposed shrowded and sheltered under a cloak of Law Well the cause cannot be so bad so repugnant to common Equity to Law to Honesty to Conscience but some will be found to sollicite it and not only privately to countenance and support it but publickly if need so require to plead and report it this is done by such as makes his vocation a Monopoly for himselfe and levels all his paines not at the publick good but at his private gaine and in his heart applauds that saying of Vespasian to his son Titus when he gathered a tax from some homly matters lucri bonus est odor ex re qualibet It is no matter how bad the cause be so the fee be good Weight it never so light in the ballance of Justice Gold is a heavy mettall and will soon make it weight Of both these I may well use the words of the Heathen Orator Totius injustitiae nulla capitalior est pestis quam eorum qui tum cum maxime fallunt id tamen agunt ut boni viri esse videantur Of all kinds of injustice none is so capitall a crime as of those who when they hurt worst yet do they it under a pretence and colour of right In the time of King Edward the third there was a Phamphlet set out in Latine verse bearing the style of Paenitentarius asini The Asses confessor The Argument is this The Wolfe the Fox and the Asse goe to Shrift and doe pennance First the Wolfe confesseth himselfe to the Fox who doth both absolve him and extenuate his faults then the Fox makes confession to the Wolfe who obtaines like favour at last comes the Asse and makes his confession who as his fault was lesse so the more he expected absolution And what was his fault marry this Being very hungry he had pulled a Straw out of the Sheafe of a Pilgrim that was travelling towards Rome this is no sooner confessed but it is made a capitall crime Immensum scelus est injuria quod peregrino Fecisti Stramen subripiendo sibi Such as for which he must have the rigour of the Law and that is to be slaine and devoured The Author of that Book did no doubt obliquely gird the Pope whom he meant by the Wolf and his Prelates whom he understood by the Fox I thinke we may not unfitly apply it to the persons whom we have in hand The wrangling Client is the Wolfe the unconscionable Advocate is the Fox the plain dealing man is I would say the Sheep but the Fable calls him an Asse and indeed he is made the Asse and inforced to beare the burden away The Fox and the Wolfe shrive themselves one to the other and all their sins are minced and qualified mountaines with them are but Mole-hills blocks in their wayes are but straws beams in their eyes are but motes great sins are little sins and little sins are no sins Let the poore silly Asse when he comes to shrife the least wrong that can be pretended especially if it be against one of them though it be but the turning of a straw Immensum scelus est c. It is an action of Trespasse and unlesse he will compound for the wrong that he hath done he must undergoe the rigour of the Law Let not our learned and worthy Lawyers mistake me as if I sought to disgrace and defame their profession I respect I reverence I honour it and I make no doubt but there are very many of this Profession as learned and skilfull in the Law so also honest conscionable religious And to use Jethros words concerning Magistrates men of courage fearing God men
over the whole globe of the earth is but a God of Gods footstool Your circuit is farre lesse you are but Gods of an out-corner nay a little portion of an out-corner of Gods footstoole Let me then speak unto you in the words of the Tragoedian Vos quibus rector maris atque terrae Jus dedit magnum necis atque vitae Ponite inflatos tumidosque vultus you whom the God of heaven and earth hath so highly extolled as to make Judges of life and death be not proud of your authorities but think with your selves that Quicquid à vobis minor extimescit Major hoc vobis Dominus minatur What hurt soever your inferiours shall sustain by your means there is a greater God that threatneth the same nay a worse unto you Be wise now therefore O yee Gods be learned ye that are Judges ef the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with trembling kisse the sonne lest he be angry Let his word be a law to direct your sentences his will the line to measure your actions With what conscience can those hands subscribe to an untruth which should be Gods instrument to confirm a right with what faces can those mouthes pronounce an unjust sentence which should be the organes of God to confirm a right When you do amisse you are not only injurious unto man whom yee wrong but contumelious unto God whose sacred judgements ye pollute Give me leave then to say unto you with good king Jehosaphat take heed what ye do for ye execute not the judgements of man but of the Lord and he will be with you in the cause and judgement Wherefore now let the fear of God be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity in the Lord our God neither respect of persons nor receiving of reward Therefore in every cause that shall come unto you between bloud and bloud between law and precept statute and judgement ye shall judge the people according unto right and admonish them that they trespasse not against the Lord. Let me say with Moses Judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him ye shall have no respect of persons in judgement but shall hear the small as well as the great With Jeremiah unto the king of Judah Execute judgement and righteousnesse deliver the oppressed from the hands of the oppressour vexe not the stranger the fatherlesse nor the widow do no violence nor shed innocent blood in this place And finally with my Prophet in this Psalm Defend the poor and fatherlesse see that such as be in need and necessity have right deliver the outcast and poor save them from the hands of the ungodly 16. I speak not this as if I would have you to exceed the limits of justice for commiserating the cause of the poor I know the poor may offend as well as the rich and as the poor is to be pitied so the rich is not to be wronged And he that hath given this law unto the Magistrate that he should not respect the person of the mighty hath given this also that he should not favour the person of the poor It is not the misery of the one nor the felicity of the other that the Judge is to respect For the matters in question sound them to the bottome anatomize them to the least particle and sift them to the branne but for the parties whom they do concern farther then this that ye are to judge between a man and a man ye ought not to enquire The law in the Greek tongue comes from a verb that signifieth to divide because it divideth to every man that which is his own You then which are dispensers of the law should give to every one poor or rich that which is his right Hereupon it is that Aristotle cals the Judge in commutative justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as some copies have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medianus or medijurus a mean between two because he should not propend to the one party more then the other but only so farre as the weight of the cause carrieth him and should give to every man that which is his right and that not according to geometrical but according to arithmetical proportion that is not with Xenophons young Cyrus give the greater coat unto the greater man and the lesser coat unto the lesser man but to give the greater coat if it be his due unto the lesser man and let the greater man if he have right to no more be contented with the lesser coat 17. But the principal thing which it beseemeth me to put you in mind of and which is chiefly required at your hands as ye are factors for the God of heaven is the care of religion and the true worship of God Nothing is so dear unto God as his own worship He that toucheth it wounds him to the heart and pierceth the apple of his eye It is an injurie which he will not put up at the hands of any man but will come against him as the fire that burneth up the stubble and as the hammer that breaketh a stone Therefore it most neerly concerneth you who are his deputies to maintain his service and to put what strength you can unto the hammer of justice that ye may as farre as the lawes will give you leave burst into pieces whatsoever shall advance it selfe against his worship 18. The sicknesses in religion that are amongst us are not Novatianisme Brownisme Catharisme No no these hot phrenzies are scarse heard of in this cold climat wherein we live They are cold Epilepsies and dead Apoplexies and sleepy Lethargies and dangerous Consumptions that vexe us The main root whence they all spring is a disease with which this land is sick And that is the bold profession of Popery for hereby the true Christian are mightily discouraged those that are infected with Romish superstition take occasion by little and little to fall away from us The ignorant are doubtful and know not what to do but are ready to embrace any religion or no religion as time and occasion shall require The Atheist a vermine wherewith this whole country swarmes though they cannot be well discovered by reason that they wear vizards upon their faces is hardned and heartned in his impiety For us we do what we can to cut in sunder this bitter root Gladly would we heal them of Babylon but they will not be healed For our privat conferences with any of them if they want wit to answer our reasons they have will to let them alone For our publike work of the ministery lest we should catch some of them they will not come within the compasse of our nets The last weapon of the Church is fulmen excommunicationis to drive them out of our Synagogues And what care they for this who will not come in them no when we do entreat them they
hath for iron Glaucus made no good market with Diomedes when he changed his golden armour for armour of brasse but many clients complain that they meet with worser merchants who for a puâ—se full of angels give them nothing but a black boxe full of papers Procrastinations and unnecessary delayes for filling of the lawyers coffers and pilling of the poor clients is a fault which I have glanced at heretofore and might a thousand times hereafter ere ever it be reformed For never was it more spoken against then now and never was it so much practised as now Well fare the old Athenian lawes which as Anacharsis once said were like unto Spider-webs that catched the little Flies and let the Waspe and the Bee and the Beetle burst though them in respect of them that hold Waspe and Bee and Beetle and all and scarce any can burst through them But what do I now Condemn I the law I do wrong Is the law sinne saith Paul he speaks of the moral law Nay the law is holy and just and good but I am carnal sold under sinne So say I is our law sin Nay our law is just and good Here is the break-neck of all too many of our Solliciters Atturnies and learned Scribes are meerly carnal and sold under sinne using it not to that end for which it is ordeined the glory of God and the peace of the common-wealth But as the fowler doth his net for catching of plovers to inrich themselves withal making that which should be for the common good a Monopolie for themselves a profession of mockerie and a meer shop of most horrible and detestable covetousnesse But it is the worst thriving in the world to rise with an other mans fall It was a short but a sharp quip which a captive gave unto Pompey the great Nostrâ misiriâes Magnus It is our misery that gave thee thy surname It is so in this case Nostrâ miseriâ es Magnus may the client say to his counsellour As the swelling of the splene argueth the consumption of other parts so the inriching of the lawyer the impoverishing of the client If then his cause be good alas why is it never ended If it be nought why is it still defended If the cause be nought the defence is worse then nought Understand me rightly it may be a Counsellours hap to be a speaker in an ill cause and yet he not worthy any blame The party may misinform him in the truth of the cause Judgements in the like case may be different or some other circumstance may deceive him But where it plainly appears to be nought indeed by nimblenesse of wit and volubility of tongue to smooth it over with colourable probabilities thereby as farre as thou canst to give the truth an overthow this is but to guild over a rotten post to call good evil and evil good to let loose Barabbas and destroy Jesus to make the devil who is a fiend of darknesse to appear in the likenesse of an angel of light and therefore worse then nought Better with Papinian to have thy head parted from thy shoulders then to be a common Advocate in such causes There is a kind of men in the world who though they know before they begin their suits or at least before they have waded farre in them as well as they know their own names and the number of their fingers that the matter which they prosecute by extremity of law is manifest wrong yet either out of a malitious humour to give their adversaries an overthrow or because their ability is such that it will hold them out or because others do joyn with them and make it a common quarrel or because they love Salamander-like to be broyling in the fire of contention can by no means be disswaded from their wicked enterprise This matter so wickedly and mischievously begun one counsellour or other that loves with the Eele-catchers in the old comedie to be fishing in muddy waters and desires alife to bathe himself in any pool that an Angel shall trouble must manage He must find some probable title in the law for it he must as long as the law will afford him any kind of weft weave it out in length and when it fails he must Spider-like spinne it out of his owne bowels He must prolong judgement and deferre the matter from one day to another from one tearm to another from one year to another from one court to another till at length he who hath both God and the law and a good conscience on his side for very wearinesse be enforced to give it over or be brought to extreme beggery that he can follow his suit no longer or till Atropos have cut in sunder the thred of his dayes and so made an end of the quarrell Well were it for the Commonwealth if such seditious quarrellers and make-bates were by some severe punishment taught not to delude justice and oppresse the truth that others by their example might be terrified from such wicked attempts and that honest and godly men might live in more peace and tranquillity If my words do sound harsh to som of my hearers I must say of them as Hierom saith of som in his epistle to Rusticus dum mihi irascuntur suam indicant conscientiam multoque pejùs de se quam de me judicant If they be offended with me they bewray their own guilty consciences and have a farre worse opinion of themselves then they have of me I name none I know none I speak in generall against sinne and if any mans conscience condemn him God is greater then his conscience and knoweth all things and therefore let him goe his way and sinne no more lest a worse thing happen unto him My hope is that all you are of a better disposition But I kow ye are all men and therefore subject to the like passions and infirmities that others are Let me therefore once againe to returne to that from which I have a little digressed beseech you in all your pleadings and legall proceedings to remember that account that yee must make unto God when yee shall be called hence Remember that there is woe denounced against them that call good evill and evill good Remember the end of your profession it is not to sowe dissention to fill your own coffers to make a mart to utter your own wares to shew your ready wits and voluble tongues in speaking probably of every subject good or bad but to help every man to his right to cut away strife and contention and to restore peace and unitie in the common-wealth that all the Members of the body politick may be of one heart and one soule Even as there is one hope of our vocation one Lord one faith one baptisme one God one father of all which is above all and through all and in us all Remember that our God is called the God of peace his Gospel
count it but brutum fulmen a thunderclap without a bolt a canon-shot without a bullet it hurts them no more then the dart which old Priamus in the Poet shot at Pyrrhus Quod protinus aere repulsum In summo clypei nequidquam umbone pependit Further then this we cannot go the weapons of our warfare are spiritual Coactive jurisdiction is beyond our spheare What is now behind Vbi desinit Philosophus incipiat medicus where the word leaves them let the sword find them Brachium seculare was the help and assistance that the holy fathers of the Council of Constance implored against the poor Hussites And brachium seculare is the help and assistance that we implore against these Canaanites that are amongst us Which howsoever unto the halting Mephibosheths and lukewarme Laodiceans of our time which can blow both cold and hot out of the same mouth and wear linnen and wollen in the same garment and yoke an oxe and an asse in the same plowe and care not if their fields be sown with mingled seeds they be never a whit noysome yet unto the true Israelite they are thorns in his sides and pricks in his eyes and gives him just occasion to exhibit that bill of complaint against them which the Jewes framed most falsly against the Apostle ye men of Israel nay yee Gods of Israel help these are the men that teach all men every where against the people and the law and this place Moreover they have brought not Grecians as it is in the text but a more pestilent sect Romanes into the land and have polluted this holy place 19. I speak not only of those children of Babylon those sons of Belial the followers of the beast the viperous brood of Rome the Seminary Priests and Jesuites that crawle in every quarter of this land like the frogs of Egypt and travel sea and land to make one of their own profession that he may be two-fold more the child of the devil then they themselves are but also of these limmes of Antichrist these factors and panders for the great whore that are at home and sit under their own fig-trees and drink the water of their own cisterns Quos video volitare in foro quos stare ad curiam quos etiam venïre in senatum as the Orator speaks These these are nostri fundicalamitas the very moths of our region and the cankarworms of our religion Wherefore gird you with your swords upon your thighes and be not faint hearted like Jether the first born of Gideon but let your right hand teach you terrible things No doubt but they will complain of cruelty and persecution they do that already when they have no cause but let not that discourage you but rather let it be a means that they may have the same law which the old Capitolian dogs had when they barked without a cause their legs were to be broken If the difference between them and us be de lanâ caprinâ about toyes and trifles let them be ashamed of their bloudy cruelty that have butchered and massacred so many thousands of our brethren for toyes and trifles Yea and let us be ashamed likewise that have continued so long in schisme and division from the Roman Church for matters of so small moment If they be as I take them to be fundamental points of Christianity alas what worldly respect shall be sufficient to cool the heat of our zeale in Gods cause If our religion be a new religion and theirs the old and Catholique let us forsake our new-fangles and joyne with them The old is the true religion If ours be the old and Catholique religion which the Apostles have taught us the martyrs have confirmed unto us and the faithful till this day have maintained and taught and theirs a new and an upstart religion an hotch-potch and Pandora composed of all the religions in the world scarce heard of for any material point of difference between them and us in the Church of God for six hundred years after Christ let them pare away these rotten rags these filthy and menstrous clouts and beggarly rudiments and let them joyn with us Eâ—ther let us all swear by God or all by Malcham Either let us all serve God or all Baal if God be God let us all follow him if Baal be God let us all go after him 20. I know what some will be ready to answer me though in matters of religion they be different from us yet for civil duties they will be subjects good enough You say true sir and so the kite will be a dove good enough but wote ye when marry when he cannot seaze upon a chicken and make her his prey as Augustins speaks Is it likely that he will be true to an earthly king that in matters of religion is his opposite who is false to the King of Heaven Philosophers though they hold that it is not the same vertue that makes bonum virum and bonum civem yet the best of them agree in this principle that he cannot be bonus civis good in the duties of civil policy which is not first bonus vir perfect in the general duties of morality neither can he be true in practising the virtues of the second table which is false in the first Dost thou think that the oath of Allegiance is a band of sufficient force to tie a Papist in true allegiance unto his Prince Quo teneas vultum mutantem Protea nodo Canst thou binde Proteus that turns himself into every shape Or canst thou make a coat for the moon that is never at a stay Was there ever oath so wisely contrived so religiously taken but the slippery snakes and stretching horse-leaches of Rome could find some chink to creep out at or their Holy Father out of his Papal and transcendent power can dispense with it or cut it as Alexander did Gordians knot or break it as Sampson did the new ropes where with the Philistines had bound him which he brake from his armes as a threed 21. Verily I think there is no probability to be a true Papist and a true subject A few simple seduced creatures amongst us that understand not the mysteries of popery but onely in a generality I speak not of them and yet I know how easily the young cubs may be taught to learn the tricks of the old Foxes but for the rest the time past will help us to discover them in the time to come To say nothing of their damnable and treacherous practises abroad against forrein princes and here at home against Queen Elizabeth of never dying memory and the breath of our nostrils King James that one gunpowder-plot a devise set from the bottome of hell may be an everlasting memento of their disloyalty Accipe nunc Danaûm insidias crimine ab uno Disce omnes By this one fact wee may judge of all the rest
octo pedum He whom the whole earth could not content was at length contented with a parcel of ground of eight yea of six foot long Herod when upon a day he was arrayed in royal apparel and sate on the bench and gave such an excellent charge that the people cried non vox hominem sonat It is the voyce of God and not of man immediatly after proved neither God nor man For he was eaten up of wormes and gave up the Ghost Rare examples for the Gods of the earth to look down into their own bosomes and to remember that they must die as men It is a good custome of the Emperour of the Abyssenes Prester John to have every meal for the first dish that comes on his table a dead mans skull to put him in mind of his mortality So was that which was used by Philip namely to have a boy every day to put him in mind that he was to die as a man Not much unlike was the old practise of the Egyptians who when their Princes went to banquet used to beare before them the picture of a dead man to put them in mind of their mortality 24. Seeing then that ye must die study to have your accounts in readinesse that whensoever the Lord shall call you hence hee may finde you provided Be faithfull in those high rooms wherein God hath placed you Ye execute not the judgements of man but of the Lord. Aske counsel therefore of God and weigh your proceedings in the ballance of the sanctuary Do nothing but what God commands you and the testimony of a good conscience will warrant to be lawful remembring that ye must one day God knowes how soon that day will come be summoned to appear before the common Judge of all flesh who is a burning and consuming fire who is not blinded with secret closenesse nor corrupted with bribes nor moved with friends nor allured by flatterers nor perswaded by the importunity of intreaters to depart anâ— haires breadth from the course of justice no though these three men Noah Daniel and Job should stand before him and make intercession in your behalf These things remember and do and ye shall have comfort in your lives comfort at your deaths And when your souls shall be removed from those earthly cottages wherein they now dwell they shall be translated into everlasting habitations and received with this joyful and comfortable welcome it is well done good servants and faithful ye have been faithful in a little I will make you rulers over much enter into your masters joy 25. Like men It is implied in the conclusion of my text that it is the lot and condition of all men to die And therefore as it concernes magistrates so it concerns all others to provide themselves for their end because as the tree fals so it lies that is as the day of death shall leave them so the day of judgement shall finde them Remember this yee that are to be witnesses for giving testimony unto the truth and jurers for giving a verdict according to the truth And as you love and reverence the truth it selfe as ye desire the benefit of your Christian brethren which ye should love as your selves as ye wish the glory of God which ye should tender more then your selves let it be a forcible motive unto you to deal uprightly in every cause with every man without declining to the right hand or to the left then shall ye sanctifie the name of God by whom ye do swear to speak truly to deal truly ye shall give occasion to good men to praise God for you and ye shall not need to be ashamed to meet God in the face when he shall call you to a reckoning for your doings But on the other side if rewards shall blind you or fear enforce you or pitty move you or partiality sway you or any respect whatsoever draw you to smother the truth and favour an evil cause yee pearce your selves through with many darts For first you are false witnesses against your neighbour secondly ye are thieves ye rob him of his right thirdly ye are murtherers ye kill him in his body or in his name or in his maintenance fourthly and which is worst of all ye take the name of your God in vain yea as much as in you lieth ye take his godhead from him and make him who is the truth from everlasting to be all one with the devil who is a lyar from the beginning If ye must be countable unto God when he shall call you hence for every idle word that goes out of your mouthes and if the least ungodly thought of your hearts in the rigour of Gods justice deserve eternal death how shall ye be able to stand in judgement under this ponderous Chaos of so many crying sins I cannot prosecute this point only for conclusion I say with Moses behold this day have I set before you life and death blessing and cursing choose life and ye shall live If not I pronounce unto you this day ye shall surely perish The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it 26. You whose profession is to open the causes in controversie and by your knowledge in the laws to distinguish between right and wrong truth and falshood remember that ye must die And therefore I beseech you in the fear of God to study to make the cause of your clients sure as that ye do not in the mean time forget S. Peters counsel to make your own election sure I urge this the rather because absit reverentia vero I will speak the truth in despite of all scoffes and I hope such as are ingenious will bear with my plainnesse if as Philip said of the Macedonians I call a boat a boat and a spade a spade because it seemeth to be much neglected by many of your profession who with Martha trouble themselves about many businesses but anum necessariâ—m to meet Christ and talk with him they scarce remember it I remember the saying of Demades touching the Athenians when they refused to make Alexander one of their Gods and Cassander who was his successour threatned that unlesse they would do it he would presently overthrow their city the Athenians said Demades have reason to look to themselves lest while they are too curious about heaven they lose the earth But these men have need to look to themselves lest while they trouble themselves too much about the earth they lose heaven by whose means especially it is effected that our courts do too much resemble the Lyons den which howsoever other beasts in simplicity went flocking on heaps unto yet the fox that found by experience how others sped durst not come near it Quia me vestigia terrent said she Omnia te adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum All comes to them little from them they have as attractive a force for silver as the loadstone
the Gospel of peace his ministers the Ambassadours of peace his natural Son the Author of peace his adopted sons the children of peace if then ye will be the sons of the most highest your endeavor must be this to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Consider what I say and the Lord give you wisdome and understanding in all things Finally to speake unto all and so to make an end of all seeing that we are all Tenants at will and must be thrust out of the doors of these earthly Tabernacles whensoever it shall please our great landlord to call us hence let us have our loines girt and our lampes continually burning that whensoever the Lord shal call us hence in the evening or in the morning at noon-day or at mid-night he may find us ready Happy is the man whom his Master when he comes shall find watching Let us every day sum up our accounts with God Ita aedificemus quasi semper victuri ita vivamus quasi cras morituri let us build as if we would ever live but let us live as if wee were ever ready to dye Then may every one of us in the integrity of heart and syncerity of conscience when the time of his departing is at hand say with the blessed Apostle If have fought a good fight and have finished my course I have kept the faith from hence forth is laid up for me a crowne of righteousnesse which God the righteous Judge shall give me at that day Unto this God one eternall omnipotent and unchangeable Iehovah in essence three persons in manner of subsistence the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour and glory power might and majestie both now and forever more Amen Galathians 3. 10. As many as are of the workes of the Law are under the Cuurse for it is written cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to do them IN which words observe two things 1. A Doctrine 2. A Reason of the doctrine in the former part the reason in the latter I have spoken of the doctrine I purpose now to speake only of the reason for it is written c. wherein observe three things 1. It is to no purpose to begin a good course of life unlesse thou hold it out and continue till the end 2. It s not enough for a Christian to performe obedience to some of Gods precepts and to bear with himself wilfully in the breach of others Cursed is he that continueth not in all 3. That the rule of our obedience is no unwritten tradition but the written Word of God that are written in the booke of the Law But before I speak of these I gather from the connexion this conclusion That no man can in this life perfectly fulfill the Will of God it followeth thus because as it is written Cursed c. So it is written This doe and thou shalt live and the man that doth these things shall live in them So that the Apostle takes this for granted or else his argument is of no force this is evidently confirmed by many places of Scripture 1 Kings 8. 49. Eccles 7. 22. Psal 143. 2. Isa 64. 6. Acts. 15. 10. Acts. 13. 39. 1 Ioh. 1. 8. 2. It is confirmed by reason the first is drawn from the corruption of nature which is in the best Christians from which wee may thus argue he that consisteth of flesh as well as of Spirit cannoâ— fulfill the Law no not in his best actions but the best Christian that ever lived consisteth of flesh as wel as of Spirit therfore he cannot fulfill the law The minor hath been formerly proved The Major is plaine for as he is carnall he is sold under sinne The wisdome thereof is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Thus it is proved from the the death of Christ for if righteousnesse be by the workes of the Law then Christ dyed without a cause Gal. 3. 21. and if they which are of the law be heires then saith is made void and the promise is made of no effect Rom. 4. 14. for he came to fulfill the law Matth. 5. 17. which was impossible to be fulfilled of us in as much as it was weake because of the flesh Therefore God sent his sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh Rom. 8. 3. But the Romish Sophisters answer that this maketh against the Pelagians which were of opinion that a man might by the strength of nature fulfill the law not against them which hold that this abilitie comes from grace and that the good workes of a Christian proceed from Christ as the juice in the branches proceedeth from the Vine To this I answer 1. That neither the Pelagians nor these against whom the Apostle disputeth did altogether exclude grace and therefore if it be strong against them it will be of force against the Papists too 2. Their answer is grounded upon a false supposition as that the works of a Christian doe proceed wholly from Christ for they they doe in part proceed from the flesh and therefore though as they are the workes of the holy Ghost who applieth unto the faithfull the force and efficacie of Christs resurrection they be perfect yet in respect of the flesh they be stained and polluted 3. Christ died for us not by any inherent but by his imputed righteousnesse which righteousness is applyed and appropriated unto us principally by the holy Ghost instrumentally by faith whereby wee are incorporate into Christ and so partakers of his righteousnesse wee might be justified I thinke Abraham was as holy a man as Ignatius the father of Jesuits or Dominicus and Franciscus the founders of Friers in whom saith Bellarmine their very adversaries can find nothing that deserveth reprehension praeter nimiam sanctitatem save their too much holiness and yet it was not his good workes but his faith for which he was counted righteous I know that this imputative righteousnesse is counted with them a putative and imaginarie righteousness but herein the injurie is not done unto us but unto him who saith to him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Even as David declareth the blessednesse of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without workes saying Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sinne wee say that faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousnesse now it is not written for him only that it was imputed unto him for righteousness but also for us to whom it shal be imputed for righteousnesse c. A third reason to prove that no man can fulfill the Law is because all have need to say forgive us our debts who more excellent amongst the old people saith Austin then the holy Priests and yet the Lord commanded them that
use the meanes they can to put this evill day from them as being the beginning of their eternall woe and sorrow but let the children of God be no more afraid to dye then they fear a Bee without a sting then they feare a sleep when their eyes are heavie or they feare to be comforted when they are in miserie or to be at home when they are abroad in a strange Country FINIS TO THE READER Reader IF the reverend Author of those Sermons had not been one of those Qui male merentur de viribus suis for so I shall take leave to expostulate with his modesty his more then vulgar Abilities might have added much to the lustre of his Name with which he hath hitherto dealt so unkindly as to detaine it though not in the shade yet at too great a distance from the Sun Whilst he lived in the Vniversitie he was a singular Ornament to the Colledge where Providence had bestowed him and being thence called forth to a Pastorall charge over the place which first welcomed him into the World he was quickly taken notice of as worthy of a more eminent Station in the Church to which he was accordingly preferred with the generall acclamations of all the knowing and pious Divines in the Diocesse with whom to say nothing of others though of greatest note in that Precinct for a comprehensive and orthodox Judgement adorn'd with all variety of learning he hath ever been held in greatest Estimation As for these Sermons some of which saw the light and all have been delivered many yeares ago they are able to speake for themselves Their maine designe is to heale the plague of the Heart not the Itch of the Eare Animis composuit non auribus Here is good wholesome â—iands 〈◊〉 before you and if your Palate be not over 〈◊〉 you will have no cause to quarrell with the Sance What help soever the Booke shall afford you in your spirituall negotiations give God the glory and the Author I doubt not hath his End T. Tully LUKE 12. 32 Feare not little Flock for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome CHRIST the Great Shepheard of our soules being shortly to finish that for which he came into the World the work of our Redemption and to lay downe his life for his Sheep and according to his corporall presence to have them in the wildernesse of this World where they should find Amalekites to encounter them the Sonnes of Anack to impugne them fierce Serpents to sting them Lyons and Beares and Foxes and Wolves to devour them and the very Wildernesse it selfe by its naturall barrennesse ready to starve them doth in the precedents of this Chapter warne and arme them against all humane and mundane fears Humane from Verse 4. till the tenth Mundane from the tenth till this thirty second both which if I be not mistaken are by way of recapitulation wrapped up in the beginning of this Verse Feare not c. And in the later part confirmed by an Argument a majori For it is your Fathers pleasure c. As if he should have sayd My friends which have forsaken all and followed me in the regeneration though ye be as a flock of Sheep subject to wandring unfit to provide fot\r your selves things necessary unable to resist the Wolves amidst whom ye are though ye be little in the opinion and estimation of the World being reputed the scum of the earth the filth of the world the outcast of the people and of-scouring of all things lesse in comparison with the world being in respect of them as the first fruits in respect of the Harvest as the gleanings in comparison of the Vintage yet be not dismayed nor discouraged for any thing that the world wiâ—l or can inflict upon you for loe he that was your enemy is now become your friend he that had a Sword of vengeance drawne against you will now fight for you he that was a just and severe Judge is now become your Father because you are in me and howsoever of your selves you have deserved no better then others whom he hath left in that masse of corruption wherein all Adams Children lay drowned yet his good will and pleasure is such that he will at length freely bestow upon you an inaccessible Inheritance in his Kingdome of glory much more will he watch over you by his heavenly protection provision and direction in this Kingdome of Grace Feare not c. A Doctrine proposed by way of exhortation Which words divide themselves into two branches 1. Feare not little Flock 2. A reason or argument to confirme this For it is your Fathers pleasure c. In the first of these observe 1. The object Flock 2. The quantity of it Little flock 3. An incouragement against feare In the second note these particulars 1. The Grantor Your Father 2. The cause impulsive that makes him respect us and that is his good pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Father is pleased 3. The manner of conveyance by Franck Almaigne to give 4. The quality and quantity of the gift a Kingdome Of each of which particulars because I cannot now particularly discourse for as much as they seem unto me like Elishaes Cloud still bigger and bigger or like the waters of the Sanctuary deeper and deeper I will by your patience make the object of our serious speech the subject of my speech at this time Flock The party to whom this speech is directed are his Disciples Verse 1. and Verse 22. those which he had picked and culled from amongst all the Sons of Adam and effectually called to his grace the Church without that was actually existent at that present so that what is here spoken to them is spoken to the whole Church of God They then were shee still is a Flock of Sheep for that is meant as may appeare by conference with like places John 10. 11. 16. 27. John 21. 15. Matth. 25. 33. Psal 100. 3. Whence observe two things 1. The quality of the members in that they are resembled unto sheep 2. The unity of the whole body in that it makes but one Flock of Sheep Concerning the first The Church of God is called a Flock of Sheep not a Herd of Swine nor a Kennell of Dogâ— nor a Stable of Horses nor a Fold of Goates nor a Mew of Hawks nor a Capine of Foxes nor a Den of Wolves nor a Puddle full of Toades because she must not wallow in the filthy mire of sin like Swine nor bite one another like Dogs nor be proud and stomackfull like Horses nor stink in her corruption like Goates nor be ravenous like Hawks nor fraudulent like Foxes nor cruell like Wovles nor poysonfull like Toades but in patience and sincerity in meeknesse and simplicity in innocensie and humility she must resemble a Flock of Sheep So then the ungodly miscreant that drinks iniquity like water and is frozen in his own Dregs and
Gods foole and the second the Kings To speak a little of either of these by themselves the first is our Statute-Proteâ—tant our indifferent Apelles our hollow-hearted Interimist our luke-warm Laodicean which howsoever he make an outward shew and profession of Religion yet he counts no more of it then the Gaderens did of Christ who made more reckoning of their swine then they did of him And this man rather then for Christs cause he should lose a swine hee can be contented that Christ should part out of his Coasts He will make an outward shew to the world as if he did love and reverence the truth he will perform the outward works thereof as farre as the law of man binds him but all without a simple and sincere heart only upon some sinister respects and indifferent considerations As 1. because he will not be singular but desires to live at unity with the people with whom he converseth 2. For feare of humane Laws 3. Religion is to him as a faire Cloak to a beggerly Swaggerer it hides his rotten rags and keeps him from wind and weather 4. Peradventure it serves him as a ladder to advance him unto some preserment and as soon as he hath attained the top of his hopes he cares not though he push it down with his heels Now because he makes no account of Religion but only as an instrument to effect his owne private purposes hereupon it falls out that he is ready to embrace any Religion or no religion as the circumstance of persons time and place shall require For as they fable of the Sea-god called Proteus that he doth always resemble the colour of the Rock upon which he lies or as Glass reflects the visage of him that shall look upon it or as water forms it selfe according to the fashion of the vessel into which it is powred so he is always ready to joyne in profession with them with whom he liveth and converseth the reason in all is the same the Proteus and the Glasse have no perfect colour nor visage of their owne and therefore they reflect the colour and visage of others that are next unto them The water hath no figure of his owne for humidum suis terminis non est terminabile and therefore it applies it selfe to the vessel that contains it And this man hath no Religion of his owne it is enough for him if he have some species and reflection thereof from others By this unstablenesse and mutability of profession may this hypocrite be discerned and distinguished from a true Professour For as wild Apes are catched while they imitate the motions and dancing of men so may this same Ape be catched and disclosed by framing his Religion to the disposition and affection of others For though hee hath no man save himselfe in his Pater Noster yet hee hath every man in his Creed because every mans Creed for the time is his This Countrey is full of this kinde of Vermin I have found it too often amongst the meaner sort and I pray God that all of you that are Gentlemen and of place and authority in the countrey could wash your hands from this sinne I charge no particular I cannot For no man knows the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him Only let me crave leave to propose a few queries and let every man upon the examination of his own heart at his best leasure return an answer Is there any among you any Pharisee that under a colour of long prayers devours widows houses Any Absolom that under pretence of performing a vow practiseth rebellion against his father Any Jezabel that under a colour of executing Judgement sucketh the blood from guiltlesse Naboth If there be as I hope there will a non est inventus returned upon all these Let me go a little further Is there any Ambidexter that can play with both hands Any Satyr that can blow both cold and hot out of the same mouth Any Jew that can swear by God by Malchom Any Assyrian that can serve God and his Idols Is there any that can be contented to hear a Sermon in the Church and to see a Masse at home That yoaketh an Oxe and an Asse in the same Plow and weareth Linnen and Woollen in the same Garment and soweth his field with mingled seeds To speake plain English that hath not Joshuah's resolution I and my house will serve the Lord but comes himselfe to Church leaves his wife to say over her Beads at home and permits to his children and familie greater liberty in their Religion then in their Garments to shape what fashion they like best I pray God there be no such if there be I pray God turn their hearts that there may be no such but those that will maugre what can be said or done unto them continue such and hang like a Thiefe upon a Gibbet between Heaven and Hell God and the Devil the Pope and the King It were to be wished they were handled by the Magistrate as Tullus Fostilius dealt with Motius Suffetius when hee stood indifferently affected between the Romans and the Fidenates or used as Birds use the flying fish because it is a master in the Sea the Dolphin persecutes it there and because it is a master in the Aire the Fowls set upon it there So because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither Protestants nor Papists it matters not if they were expelled out of both their Elements If not yet let them fear and heare Laodiceas censure Rev. 3. 16. I speak not these things out of any spleen to any particular persons what soever he that knows the thoughts of my heart knows that I lie not my worst wish to any of you is the salvation of his own soule in the day of Jesus Christ I am perswaded far better things of many of you and for others as far as charity binds me I judge the best and therefore if any be offended at my speech it is scandalum acceptum non datum not I but his owne guilty conscience that deserves the blame If I should in this place seek to please man I were no fit Ambassador of Christ As long as the Chyrurgeon works according to the rules of his Profession let his Patient weep and cry and complain of cruelty yea and scratch him on the face he needs not care for it And he that rides in the street armed on every side from top to toe what counts he if all the dogs of the Town bark at him As long as a man is faithfull in his Vocation and without feare or favour of man doth those things that are proper to his place Hic murus aheneus esto He is armed on every side with Gods protection and therefore may say with David The Lord is on my Side I will not feare what man can do unto me But let us come to the other Hypocrite which I called the Kings Fool this is
dealing holily and hating covetousness and such I hope all are that be here present Now that which I have spoken concerning them that are deceitfull and unconscionable is no more a disgrace unto these and their Calling then it was to Christs Apostles that one of them was a Judas or to the Leviticall Priests that one of them was a Caiphas or to the Sons of God the good Angels Jobâ— that the Prince of darkness the Devil was one of their company Only this one thing let me beseech them to take notice of the better that any thing is the more dangerous it is when it is abused Can there be any thing more necessary then Fire and Water when they keep their proper places displace them remove the fire from the hearth into the house-top and astus incendia volvunt it indangereth the whole Town remove the River out of its Channell into the mowne Meadowes and new grown Corn and Sternit agros sternit sata laeta boumque labores It sweepes away the Câ—râ— and makes havock of all Was there ever Creature that God made more excellent then the Angels and yet those Angels that fell and kept not their first Estate no Creature under Heaven so hurtfull and dangerous as they Come to man is there any calling if ye respect publick peace so necessary as the Magistrate whom God hath set in his own room and stiled with his own name If yee respect the Soule of man so worthy as the Minister if yee respect the health of Body so necessary as the Physitian if yee respect the outward and temporall Estate so requisite as the Lawyer But if these abuse their places if the Magistrate under a colour of executing of Justice practise Tyranny if the Minister for sound Doctrine preach Heresie if the Physitian instead of wholesome Physick minister poyson to his Patients who so pernicious So likewise the Lawyer if in stead of opening and explaining the Lawes and defending the right and standing in the gap that falshood and wrong may not enter he labour to smother the Law and outface the truth and patronize falshood who more hurtfull then he The more you are to be exhorted for you are all but men and no man walke he never so uprightly but he is subject to fall to walke worthy of that excellent vocation whereunto you are called love your Freinds honour the Mighty regard your Clients respect your Fees The labourer is worthy of his hyre But preferr truth and a good conscience before them all and let neither might nor feare nor Client nor Freind nor Fee nor any thing in the World cause you to make shipwrack of a good conscience or to give leave to your tongues which as the Heathen man said should be Oracles of the truth to be Bauds and Brokers for an ill cause remembring that that description which old Cato and Quintilian gave of an Orator as it agreeth to us that are Ministers so to you also that are Lawyers Viz. that he is Vir bonus dicendi peritus and therefore as he must be Dicendi peritus a good Speaker to must he also be Vir bonus a good liver Enough of this To conclude this first generall Point and so to descend unto the second for I will not now trouble you with the other two properties of a Sheep seeing the Dove-like or sheep-like simplicity is a virtue wherwith every Member of Christs Flock must be qualified we are all to be exhorted and let me say unto you with Saint Austine Hortor vos omnes charissimi meque hortor vobiscum I beseech you yea and my selfe with you to avoid hypocrosie and that the rather because it is a sin unto which all Adams Posterity are yea though they be regenerate by the spirit of God in a greater or lesser degree subject To this purpose we are to labour for single hearts because these are the soul of our actions without which well they may have a being yet have they neither life nor moving For as the Body when the Soul is separated from it how comely soever it be in outward form will presently stink and become noysome so all our words and actioâ—s whether they concern Piety or honesty God or our Neighbour if the heart be not joyned with them are but stinking Carrion and filthy Abominations in the Nostrils of Almighty God The second generall Point is the unity of Christs Church she is but as one Flock as the Sheep under one Shepheard though never so many do all concur to the making of one and the same numericall Flock So all Christians though never so dispersed over the Globe of the Earth being fed in the green Pastures of the Lord which are beside the waters of comfort do make but one and the same individuall Church And this the very word it selfe doth imply if we look into his Parentage in the Greek tongue viz. a Congregation or collection of many particulars into one society and city of God for which cause she is called one undefiled Love Cant. 6. 8. one Body Ephe. 4. 4. within which nothing is dead without which nothing is alive as Hugo speaks one Sheepfold John 16 Figured by one fleece of Gideon which was wet with the Dew of Heaven when all the ground beside was dry shadowed by the Arke of Noah wherein eight Persons were saved when all the rest or the World was drowned the Boards of which Arke were conglutinated and pitched together within and without within that she should not loose her own and without Ne admitteret alienam that she should not leake in forrain waters as a Donatist did not unfitly expound it or rather as Austine moralizeth it Vt in compagine unitatis significetur tolerantia charitatis ne scandalis ecclesiam tentantibus sive abâ—ijs quritus abijs sive quae foris sunt cedat fraterna junctura solvatur vinculum pacis August contra Faustum lib. 12. Chap. 14 reason 1. In respect of Christ the Shepheard is one therefore the Flock but one the Bridegroome one therefore the Spouse but one the Head one therefore the Body but one In this respect Cyprian holds the whole Church one Bishoprick not that his meaning is that any one man should be ministeriall head of the whole church in Christs corporal absence that the Bishop of Rome for that were to marry the chast Spouse to two Husbands instead of a faithful Spouse to make her a filthy Harlot Cyprians words wil admit no such Interpretation unus est episcopatus c. And what account he made of the Bishop of Rome which then was a man of better worth then al those Magogs who have possessed that Chaire for a thousand yeares last past it may appeare by this that he contemned his Authority vilipended his Letters opposed his Councell to his his Chaire to his called him a proude man an ignorant man a blinde man and little better then a Schismatick It is then one
is wronged make complaint rather then to his Father and to whom shall a man have recourse for redress of injuries done to him but to them who are Gods Deputies Fathers of their Countries and living Laws to give every man his owne And if every wrong should be put up with patience it would imbolden such as we speak of to multiply their abuses and with greater impudency to goe on in their lewd courses Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam whereupon the Ephori amongst the Lacedemonians did punish a man that had put up many injuries and never made complaint Nam si primum vel alterum accusasset vel jure vindicasset cateri abstinissent But yet it 's not fit that Fathers of great Families such as our reverend Judges should be molested with the petty complaints of every peevish Boy that is in the house In this case there is utterly a weaknesse of mind amongst men especially in these parts so remote from the chief Coures of Justice that they go to Law one with another As for the Wrangler of whom I was last speaking who makes the Law sometimes a Sword to revenge himself of his Brother sometimes a Coak to cover his theft Surely if that law of Pittacus was good that he who committed a fault when he was drunk should suffer a double punishment one for the offence the other for being drunk then this deserves a double one one for abusing the Law the other for wronging his Neighbour to whom he should perform all duties of brotherly love But I leave him and will end this branch with a generall exhortation As we all professe our selves to be children of one father so let us be affectioned to love one another with brotherly love Rom. 12. 10. Now then as the elect of God children of one father holy and beloved put on the bowels of mercie kindnesse meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrell against another even as God for Christs sake forgave you And let the peace of God rule in your hearts and the God of peace shall be with you O holy Father sanctifie them whom thou hast given unto thy Christ the sheepe of thy little flock keep them in thy name pour into their hearts the spirit of peace and unity That they may be all one as thou thy sonne are one Last of all Is Almighty God the great Judge of the World Is he a Father to his little flocke Here then Judges and Magistrates and the great ones of this World and all those whom the great God of Heaven and Earth hath set over others and stiled with his owne name are to be exhorted to imitate him whose person they beare in this relation of Paternity remembring bring that as they are called Gods so are they also named Fathers so Job a Judge or as some think a King is stiled Job 29. 16. And David speaks to his Subjects as unto children Psal 34. Come ye children Naamans servants call their Master father 2 King 5. 13. And Joseph when he was made ruler over Aegypt was called Abroch that is tender Father and the Philistims called their Kings Abimilech as who should say the King my Father So amongst the old Romans the worthiest of their Senators were called Fathers as Juvenall speaks of Tullie Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit They must then as Jer. exhorts not only abstain from violence and shedding of innocent blood but after Gods example deliver the oppressed from the hands of the Oppressor as much as in them lies shew themselves fathers and protectors of the righteous This God requires at their hands and those that purposely neglect it shall one day hold up their hands and answer for it when the Judge of the world shall sit on the Bench. And this they are the rather to look too because the more eminent their places are the more conspicuous will their faults be if they neglect their duties As a blaine on the eye beseems worse then a wart on the face and a wart on the face worse then a wenne on the back or other part that is not seen That which others may doe great men and those that are in authority may not Quibus omnia licent propter hoc ipsum multa non licent saith Seneca other men may looke out at a window and observe passengers in the streets Sophocles when he is on the bench may not Praetorem decet non manus solum sed oculos habere abstinentes another man may stoop and take up something that lies in his way Themistocles may not Others may weare Sycionian Pantophles but they become not Socrates though fit for his feet Magistrates play Gods part and a Fathers on the stage and therefore have need to remember Jehosaphats rule Take heed what ye doe They walk upon the top of a steep Rock they have need to tread warily And if their places and their names put them in mind of their duties especially of protecting the innocent after Gods example a shame befall those Courts and Magistrates and Advocates too who by the greatnesse of their places think to manage and inlaw the foulest enormities Vbi is qui sedet crimina vindicaturus admittit as Cyprian complains Or as Aeneas Sylvjus once said of the Court of Rome where Justice is made the lure Suiters the fowls Attorneyes and Solliciters the drivers Pleaders the fowlers the Law the net and he that should sit in the gate to protect the cause of the Innocent sits lurking in the theivish corners of the streets that hee may ravish the poore and such as he gets into his net It was a bold but a true Speech of Diomedes a Pirate to Alexander the Great when he was convented before him for Piracy I who robb with one poor Pinace am called a Pirate and thou that dost it with an invincible Navy art called a Monarch I because I robb one private man am called a Theife and thou because thou robbest and wastest whole Kingdomes to which thou hast no right art called an Emperour I by the misery of a few have purchased a name of disgrace and thou by the misery of a great part of the World hast got the Sirname of Magnus If I had thy Navy by Sea and thy Forces by Land to command I should be saluted Emperour if thou wert alone and a poor prisoner as I am the whole World would condemne thee for a notable Theife For in the cause we differ nothing save that he is the worse who doth more manifestly forsake Justice and more notoriously impugne the Laws those whom I flee thou persecutest whom I after a sort reverence thou scornest it was the iniquity of Fortune and want of necessaries that made me it 's intollerable pride and insatiable avarice that made thee a Theife had I more I would be better thou the more thou hast the worse
my Lords although the one of you is known to me but Ex auditu but being such as John gives of Demetrius I may speak to you both as I concluded my speech to you the last yeare that you may say with that worthy Judge of Israel Whose oxe have we taken and to whom have we wittingly done any wrong or at whose hands have we received any bribe to blind our eyes therewith Now as Plutarch writes of Garlick and Rue that being planted besides Rose-trees they make the Roses smell the sweeter So the corruptions of evill men set by the vertues of the good make them more pleasant in the nostrills of all good men The condemnation of evill is a secret commendation of them The threatning of judgment to the evill implies a promise of reward to them that are good Goe on in the name of God and the Spirit of the Lord even the Spirit of wisdome and understanding the Spirit of Counsell and fortitude the Spirit of Knowledge and the feare of the Lord rest upon you and guide you in all your Consultations Proceedings and Judgements that Justice and Equity may be advanced Vice suppressed Religion and Piety established Gods name glorified Peace maintained your Duties discharged and your Soules saved through Christ Jesus c. The fourth Sermon LVKE 12. 32. For it is your Fathers good pleasure c. WEe have in it observed four things 1. The Granter your Father 2. The thing granted a Kingdome 3. The grantees not all Adams sons but the Sheep of this little flock 4. The consideration or cause impulsive and that is nothing in man but the love and will and good pleasure of Almighty God your father is wel pleased The last time I supplied this place I spoke of the first I will now follow the words as they lie in order and leaving that which I noted in the second place to the last as it lies in my Text I will conclude the other two in this one Proposition Our heavenly father bestows upon the members of his little flock eternall life in his Kingdome of glory not for any merit either of Faith or of Works but meerly of his good will and pleasure We do not now dispute whether any being come to yeares of discretion can be saved without faith and new obedience I grant none can these and others be media ad salutem and fruits and effects of predestination to life but the question is which is the Sola causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which internally moves God to do this Here we exclude both faith and works yea predestination in Christ yea and Christ himselfe in whom as in the head this little flock was elected to a Kingdome and ascribe all those to the good pleasure of his will This is the little inward wheel which sets all the rest on work it 's the Primus motor which carries all the inferior orbes Election to Salvation the death and merits of Christ Vocation and the rest with and under it Election to glory is the first link in this golden chain it 's the Primum mobile that carries all the rest with it and for this and so consequently for all the rest we find no praevision either of faith or works or of any other thing for what could he foresee to see in man that is good but what from eternity he decreed to bestow upon him for his prescience in order of nature follows his decree that is he did not decree because he did foresee but he fore-saw because hee decreed things to be thus or thus but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good pleasure and will of God And surely this we may see as in a pure glasse as Austin well notes in the very head of the Church Mortal man is conceived of the seed of David by what works by what vertue did this mortall flesh merit that it should be united unto the Divinity that in the very Virgins womb he should be made the head of Angels the glory of the Father the only begotten sonne of God the righteousnesse light and salvation of the world Surely he was not made the Son of God by living righteously but it was the Fathers good pleasure that he should be dignified with this honour that he might make his little flocke partakers of his gifts But because we are now about divine mysteries in which we can know no more then the Lord hath revealed in his word let us follow this word as the Israelites followed the cloud which indeed shews the way to the promised Land and as the Wise men followed the Star which led them to Christ and it will bring us into the Kings chamber as a Father speaks Where are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid that we should be holy c. And all this according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1. 4 5. here almost every word is an argument 1. He hath chosen us From whence did he choose us Out of that masse of corruption in which all mankind was drowned and was become sonnes of wrath and bond-slaves to Satan Well then as there could be no merits in them which he past by for if they had merited they had been elected so neither did wee merit why we should be elected but from his good will and pleasure have we obtained this grace 2. Before the foundation of the world Ergo from eternity Ergo not for works 3. That we should be holy Ergo not because we were holy and so the Apostle speaks of faith God had mercie on me Vt fidelis essem not because I was faithfull 4. According to the good pleasure of his will There is the ground and cause of all Our fathers good pleasure Even so O father because thy good will and pleasure was such Adde unto this that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. He hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his purpose and grace Where to our works hee opposeth Gods purpose and grace And not to trouble you with other places that in Rom. 9. where speaking of Gods free election of some and rejection or if you like the word better praeterition of others he sends us to the prine cause of all the pleasure and will of God 1. He instanceth in Ishmael and Isaac both begotten by faithfull Abraham yet one is elected the other left out but because the Jews might object that there was not the same reason of Ishmael and Isaac the one being begotten of a bond-woman the other of a lawfull wife Sarah to whom he was promised before he was conceived Therefore hee brings another instance in Esau and Jacob who though they were both children of Isaac and discended from faithfull Abraham to whom the promise was made In thy seed c. and were Twins of one Birth and in all things like save that Esau was the Elder
fulfilled the Commandements of God yet wantest thou one thing for that work which must merit must be Opus indebitum Now obedience to every branch of Gods law is a debt which we are owing to God by the law of creation and God may say to every one of us as Paul said to Philemon Thou owest to mee even thine owne selfe Doth a Master thank that servant which did that which he was commanded to do I trow not so likewise When yee have done all things which were commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have but done that which was our duty to do Inutilis servus vocatur saith Austin qui omnia fecit quia nihil fecit ultra id quod debuit And Theophylact upon that place The servant if he work not is worthy of many stripes and when he has wrought let him be contented with this that he hath escaped stripes 3. That work by which thou must merit must be thine own but thy good works if thou look to the first cause are not so Quid habes quod non accipisti 1 Cor. 4. It s God that worketh both the will and the deed Phil. 2. 13. Not I but the grace of God in me 1 Cor. 13. So then put case thou couldst fulfill the law and it were not a payment of debt yet is no merit due to thee but to him whose they are Dei dona sunt quaecunque bona sunt Every good and perfect gift comes from above even from the father of lights And Deus sua dona non nostra merita coronat 4. Admit it were in thy power to fulfill the law that it were no debt that thy works were wholly thine and God had no part in them this is not enough there must be some proportion between the work and the reward or no proper merit Now between thy best works and the Kingdome of heaven promised to Christs little flock there is not that proportion that is Inter stillam muriae mare Aegeum as Tullie speaks between the light of a candle and the light of the Sunne between the least grane of sand that lies on the Sea-shore and the highest heaven as shall presently appear 5. Last of all that thy work may merit at Gods hands some profit or honour must thereby accrue to him But my goodnesse saith David O Lord reacheth not unto thee but to the saints that are on the earth If thou be righteous saith Elihu what givest thou to God or what receiveth he at thine hand Job 35. Who hath given unto him first Rom. 11. 35. All these five things are requisite for the merit of works but not onely some but all of them are wanting to our best works and therefore we must with the Scriptures ascribe our whole salvation to the grace of God and acknowledge nothing inherent in us to be the prime cause of all his graces but his owne good will and pleasure I count the afflictions of this world not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8. And in another place he tells us That wee deserve hell for our evill workes The wages of sinne is death but not heaven for our good deeds and sufferings but of Gods bounty and mercie Eternall life is the gift of God Rom. 6. Not by the works of righteousnesse which wee had done but according to his mercie he saved us Tit. 3. And ye are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. And how doth he prove that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works because Ei qui operatur merces non imputatur secundū gratiam sed secundum debitum And if Abraham had been justified by works he had wherein to rejoyce but not with God Rom. 3. These are places of Scripture and let me build upon this occasion to produce an assertion which once I brought upon another point which some that I see here present were pleased to except against as savouring of blasphemy though the words excepted against were none of mine but of Justin Martyr who lived above 1400. years agoe and confidently brought by him in his discourse with Tryphon a Jew if any I will not say Pelagian or Arminian or Papist but if all the Fathers of the Primitive Church if all the ancient Councels if Moses and all the Prophets if Paul and all the Apostles if an Angel from heaven nay if God himself these are the words of Justin the Martyr should deliver any doctrine repugnant to that which is contained in this booke I would not believe him Agreeable unto these places of Scripture was the doctrine of the ancient Church Gratia evacuatur si non gratis donatur sed meritis redditur Aug. Epist 105. Non dei gratia erit ullo modo nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo And in a third place Non pro merito quidem accipimus vitam aeternam sed tantum pro gratia Tract 3. in Ioh. And thus have I confirmed my proposition by reason by Scriptures and by the testimonie of the Church and Contra rationem nemo sobrius contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus contra scripturas nemo Christianus senserit as a Father saith Unto all these might be added if it were needfull the confession of the learnedst of our Adversaries let our Enemies be Judges who cry down this blasphemous doctrine of Merit God saith one of them doth punish Citra condignum but rewards Vltra condignum and Scotus as Bellar confesseth holds that Bona opera ex gratia procedentia non sunt meritoria ex condigno sed tantum ratione pacti acceptationis divinae And of the same opinion saith he were other of the old Schoolmen and of the new Writers Andreas Vega. Ferus as in many other points between us the Pontificians so in this he is as sound a Catholique and as good a Protestant as Calvin himselfe or any that hath written on this subject in Math. cap. 20. vers 8. Gratis promisit gratis reddit si dei gratiam favorē conservare vis nulla meritorum tnorum mentionem facito And in Acts 15. Qui docet in operibus confidere is negat Christi meritum sufficere Both which places many others of the same Author their Index Expurgatorius hath wiped out using him the ancient fathers as Tereus dealt with Progne who cut out her tongue lest she shold tel the truth Yea and Bellarmine himselfe after he hath spent seventeen leaves in defence of merit of works and scrapt and catcht and drawn in by the shoulders whatsoever he could out of the Scriptures or ancine Fathers for colouring that Tenent at length brings this Orthodoxall conclusion with which I will conclude this point Very Orthodoxall indeed if two letters be transposed Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae let it be Propter certitudinem propriae injustitiae propter periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate
till they finde it Some falsities at the first seeme no lesse probable then some truths as the Croy-cole beares the colour of the best and many base mettals make as faire a shew as the gold Ore till the Fire discover them The false Mother cryed as loud the child was hers as the true Mother did and therefore as a good Physitian doth first view the Urine and feele the Pulses of his Patient and enquire diligently into the cause and manner of his disease before he prescribe physick so the Magistrate who is the Physitian of the body politick as the other is of the naturall bodie lest he erre in prescribing medicines must dive into the bottome of the cause heare witnesses examine evidences weigh all circumstances and omit no meanes that may conduce for boulting out the truth It 's good counsell which was given to the Israelites touching the abuse done to the Levites Wife by the Benjamites 1. Consider apart 2. Consult amongst your selves 3. Givesentence The two former be as the two propositions in a syllogisme and to proceede to sentence before the other be throughly done is to conclude without premises No sinner was by the law of God so severely punished as the Idolater but not upon a bare hear say For Si unusquisque erit accusator quis erit innoeens The Judge must seek and make search and enquire diligently whether it be true and the thing certain Deut. 13. 14. It 's the glory of God to conceale a thing secret but it is the Kings honour to search out a matter Prov. 25. 1. So did Job a petty King as some suppose a Judg at the least When I knew not the the cause I sought it out diligently Job 29. 16. But he that for expedition gives sentence upon the first relation may judge as untruly as the accuser informes falsly as David did against Mephibosheth upon the report of a false servant The Magistrate then in using all the helps and advantages that may probably conduce for the clearing of the truth and informing his understanding in the thing controverted may not be justly censured for a delayer of judgment marry if after the cause be ripened and all things fitted for Sentence he shall then either for his own benefit or for friends or Favorites in the Court use delayes let others plead for him that can for my part I cannot excuse him from being partaker at least in other mens sinnes But I blame most the wrangling Client whom I define a Salamander that loves alwaies to be broyling in the fire of contention Qui lachrymas mittit cum nil lachrymabile cernit He is never well but when he is working some ill a right eele-catcher no fishing for him but when the waters of peace be troubled and mudded This is that Ahab that troubleth all Israell who as Jeremie speaks of himself but in another sense a contentious man and one that striveth with the whole world A rough Ismael that hath his hand against every man he goes not to law out of a desire oâ— peace for what hath he to do with peace nor out of an honest desire of maintaining his owne Right his own conscience can tell him he hath none but either out of a desire of revenge or because he knoweth himselfe more skilfull in packing and shuffling the Cards then the party with whom he plaies or presuming upon his own purse or the simplicity and weaknesse of his Adversary or out of hope by spinning in infinitum the thread of contention and bringing his Adversary into anin extricable many of troubles to inforce him at length either to part with his own Right or to say of it as the false Mother said of the true Mothers Childe let it be neither thine nor mine but let it be divided This is much furthered by Birds of a like feather unconscionable Pleaders Attornies Solliciters Clarks and such like mistake me not I speak not to disgrace their Professions they are all necessary and warrantable Callings and I doubt not but there be many of their Profession not only skilfull and learned but which is better honest conscionable religious and to use Jethroes words concerning Magistrates men of courage fearing God men dealing truly and hating covetousnesse but withall it cannot be denied the more pitty that there be to many that use their places as Monopolies for themselves and levell all their paines and studies not at the publick good which every private Trades-man in the works of his calling should principally intend much more such as have the least imployment in Courts of Justice but at their private gain they count not how bad the Cause be so the Fee be good Gold is a heavy Mettall an I will soon make it weight When these shall meet with a tough and wrangling Client as it is not like but Birds of a feather will meet they will invent for his and their own advantage mille nocendi artes a thousand delusory and venatory delaies by demurrers and Writs of Errour and appeals and I wot not what to make the Suit endlesse Souldiers live better by war then by peace and these gain as much by contention as they would loose by quietnesse Maggots and flesh-flies feed on galled Horse-backs and putrified soares which if the skin were whole and sound would quickly perish for want of food These Vermin know no better meanes to preserve their own lives then to keep the soare raw and open And many Empiricks that want meanes and have little practise when they meet with a Patient that is for their purpose will impoyson the wound that it may be long in healing and spend as much time in curing a rue-rub or a blind blayne then an honest and skilfull Physician will do in healing a Gangraena or a fistula I will not I need not apply When the Cause is ripened for hearing and like to go against them in the same Court then if all other tricks and advantages faile an appeale must be made to another and thence perhaps after much time and mony spent dismissed and returned to the place whence the appeale was made as Christ was first brought before Pilate as a computent Judge before whom he was to be tried thence upon better advise was sent to Herod where after he had been falsely accused and shamefully abused a Consultation was had and he returned to Herod Give me leave to instance in one particular a Minister wronged by his Parishoners in payment of Tithes commenceth a Suit for his releife in an Ecclesiasticall Court as a place proper for triall of such things and when after much trouble and many journies and long time spent and that which is not only of war as Vespasian laid it was but of Law-Suits also the string and strength much mony wasted he is in good hope of Sentence in comes a Prohibition and blowes all away Velut ventus folia aut panniculum tectorium Methinks those Verses which were made of Caesar and
Bibulus when they were Consuls the one being little better then a Cypher to supply the room the other ruling at his pleasure may not unfitly be applied to our Ecclesiasticall and civill Courts Non Bibulo quidquid nuper sed Caesare factum est Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini Both Caesar and Bibulus are Consuls they have both the Sword of Authority put into their hands but non Bibulo quidquam sed Caesare factum est Caesar doth all Bibulus scarce any thing at all except drinking up of Fees and as Philip in Plutarch said of two Brethren whereof one was called alteruter and the other uterque having heard them both speak out of a dislike he had of the one and approbation of the other alteruter quoth he shall be uterque and uterque shall be neuter In our Fore-Fathers daies the Ecclesiasticall power did not only stretch over Ecclesiasticall persons but like the Tree which Cambyses saw in his Dream it over shadowed and over topped the temporall power too and like Noahs Floud it overflowed the highest Mountaines as well as the lowest Vallies Then he might well have been tearmed and so he was by some uterque but now the case is altered alteruter is become uterque and uterque is become a plain neuter or rather as Vlysses tearmed himselfe to Polyphemus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a no body So that when on the one side I consider the Stiles and Papall Commands for I think they had them from Rome which our Ecclesiasticall Judges use in their Monitories and Citations and on the other side finde how little is effected and how easie all their doings are dashed out of countenance at the first sight of a Prohibition it makes me call to minde the Story of a Lacedemonian who hearing a Nightingale singing in a Hedge supposed she had been some great Bird but having afterwards catched her and found her almost nothing but a few feathers he said vox es praeterque nihil and I cannot better resemble them then unto the counterfeit shewes of Semiramis when she fought against the King of India which a far off seemed to be Elephants and dromedaries but when they were throughly tried proved nothing but Oxen-Hides stuffed and bomebasted with straw Or to those Enemies of Agesilaus which seemed as they had been Giants but one of them being gotten it was found that they had stuffed their Dabblets and Breeches only to this end that they might appeare terrible to their Enemies I disallow not Prohibitions where the Law allows them where there is as sometimes there may be just cause for them a River if it keep its selfe within its bounds is as good a Neighbour as a man can have but when it swels above its compasse and overflowes the Banks Sternit agros sternit sata laeta boumque labores it sweeps away and makes havock of all things that comes in its way My wish is that every river were confined within its own bank that for the more speedy dispatch of Law-Suits every Court were bounded within its own limits that neither Ecclesiasticall would incroach upon Civill nor Civill upon Ecclesiasticall that when Prohibitions are granted and the suggestion not sufficiently proved the party wronged may be speedily dispatched by consultation or otherwise convenient expedition releived according to Justice and Equity I am no Proctor for Ecclesiasticall Courts in which I heare there be as many rubs and lingring delaies as in any other It s piety and commiseration of the Clergy that moves me thus to speak who between these are tossed up and down like Balls in a Tenes-Court having no sooner ended in one they must begin a fresh in the other So that in this case it falls out with a Minister as with a silly fly which with much labour and trouble having got out of a Spiders webb presently falls into another that holds her fast and the faster for this that having spent her strength in the former she hath no power to resist in the latter Or as it is with Sysiphus whom Poets faine to be continually rowling a stone to the top of an Hill as soon as he hath got it thither it tumbles down again so that he is put to a new labour Aut petis aut urges rediturum Sysiphe saxum Sysiphus tumbling a stone may be a fit emblem of a Minister suing for his Tithes and the Motto agrees very well aut petit aut urget Thus far of my former Proposition its the duty of a Magistrate to see that the good and wholesome Lawes of his Country be duly and speedily executed together with a touch by way of use of some impediments which stop the due Execution of Judgment both in matters criminall and civill the latter followeth A Magistrate must without partiality or respect of persons give just Judgment a Lesson as commanded in my Text so long before commended to Magistrates by the first Law-giver Judge righteously between every man and his Brother and the stranger that is with him yee shall have no respect of persons in Judgment Deut. 1. 16. 17. Yee shall not wrest the Law Deut. 16. 19. and by Jehosophat in every cause that shall come before you between blood and blood between Law and Precept Statute and Judgment yee shall judge the people according to right 2 Chron. 9. 10. he must not be so hard hearted as not to be pitifull and compassionate to the poor nor so high minded as not to give to the mighty his due titles and honour nor so opinative and selfe-conceited as never to be led by a multitude nor so precise and scrupulous as for feare of temptation to debar a rich man from his presence but neither pity of the poor nor honour of the mighty nor consent of the multitude nor reward of the rich must draw him an haires bredth from the Rule of Justice this is the way in it he must walk not pity of the poor for thou shalt not esteem a poor man in his cause Exod. 23. 3. reliefe of the poor is a proper work of Charity not of Justice not honour of the great for thou shalt not honour the person of the mighty Lev. 19. 15. not consent of the multitude for thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evill neither agree in a controversie to decline after many and overthrow a truth Exod 23. 2. not love of the rich for thou shalt take no reward because reward blindeth the eies of the wise and perverteth the words of the Just Deut. 16. 19. The Law must be the Copy he must write by the rule he must build by the Cynosura he must saile by and as Job saith of the Seas Hither he must goe and no further hanc ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum he must neither go too short nor too far nor too much nor too little nor one way nor other tread awry but as the Sun keeps a streight course under the Ecliptick line without declining